Spectatorship experiences in literature and cimena

We attend theater or cinema in search of others, in search of other’s lives, or at least their imaginations, their constructive inventions, even what from their remains. We atten theater or movies for similar reasons to those that encourage us to read a novel, with the incentive to enjoy not only words but also images, bodies, even presence. [...] The pathological viewer goes to the movies or to the theater in search of the others knowing that the other one which is shown on stage or screen is not a true human being. The viewer shares with the reader the self-deception ability, the ability to temporarily suspend the consciousness of reality and be affected by the action, desire, thought or pain of that  one who is shown or who speaks hidden in the forms of the stage, the screen or the words. [...]

This essay discusses the experiences and pathologies of the viewer / reader as portrayed in various literary works and films: Madame Bovary (Flaubert), Some prefer nettles (Tanizaki), Silvie and Aurèlie (Nerval), Life Is a Dream (Calderon), Don Quixote (Cervantes), America (Kafka), Close up (Kiarostami), Good men, good women (Hou Hsiao-hsien), The Life of Others (Florian Henckel), A la recherce du temps perdu ( Proust), Wilhelm Meister (Goethe) and other texts by D. Diderot, B. Brecht and I. Calvino, among others.

 

Published in Querido Público. El espectador ante la participación: jugadores, usuarios, prosumers y fans [Dear Public. The spectator in front of participation: players, users, prosumers and fans], edited by Ignasi Duarte y Roger Bernat, CENDEAC-Centro Párraga-Eléctrica Producciones, Murcia, 2009, pp. 149-172